Recently, the nanotwinned structure has attracted considerable attention because of unprecedented improvement in its mechanical properties, thermal stability, and other properties. Here, we introduce the nanotwinned structure between two superhard materials [diamond and cubic boron nitride (cBN)] and obtain a nanotwinned diamond/cBN multilayered material with ultrahigh strength and unprecedented ductility. Under continuous shear deformation, the stress and total energy in the material develop in a zigzag way because of atomic reconfiguration. Further research shows that atomic reconfiguration occurs preferentially in the cBN region, followed by that in the diamond region by partial slip, and finally occurs at the interface through alternate “exchange” of the positions of C and B atoms. This multilevel stress release model can account for the significant increase in the strain range and peak stress of nanotwinned materials. These results could provide available information for the design of superhard materials with multilevel resistance to plastic deformation.

中文翻译：

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比金刚石更高的强度和延展性：纳米孪晶金刚石/立方氮化硼多层

近来，由于其机械性能，热稳定性和其他性能的空前提高，纳米孪晶结构已经引起了相当大的关注。在这里，我们在两种超硬材料[金刚石和立方氮化硼（cBN）]之间引入了纳米孪晶结构，从而获得了具有超高强度和前所未有的延展性的纳米孪晶金刚石/ cBN多层材料。在连续剪切变形下，材料中的应力和总能量由于原子的重构而呈锯齿状发展。进一步的研究表明，原子重配置优先发生在cBN区，随后在金刚石区发生部分滑移，最后通过C和B原子位置的交替“交换”而发生在界面处。这种多级应力释放模型可以解释纳米孪晶材料的应变范围和峰值应力的显着增加。这些结果可以为设计具有多级抗塑性变形能力的超硬材料提供有用的信息。